It seems the people at Starbucks have finally realized the challenges they inflicted on the caffine-deprived when they changed the lingo for ordering coffee — because they have produced a manual for ordering a Starbucks beverage.
Called “Make it Your Drink,” this 24-page little booklet has a helpful glossary, diagrams, even a sample fill-in-the-blank order (I’d like to have an iced, decaf, triple, grande, cinnamon, skim, no-whip mocha) to save you time at the counter.
Now, not being a regular Starbucks customer myself, I really have no idea whether this pocket-size manual is actually new. But I picked one up in an east Toronto SB after ordering a $2.65 iced tea and discovering, to my horror, that a shaken iced tea actually costs more than a one that’s, I don’t know, left still. By the way, the booklet has no explanation for that.
I did learn, however, that “Doppio” is Italian for double, but it’s used only to refer to a two-shot espresso. (So one orders a doppio espresso con panna, but a double latte.)
I also learned that triple, grand, decaf latte people aren’t the same as tall, iced, caramel macchiato drinkers. My guess is that they both spend a lot on coffee.
Anyway, the brilliance of the booklet is the helpful back-page, which lets you write in your order (helpfully, it allows for five lines of text) so that you can just show the card to the barista and save yourself the trouble of learning Italian.
I’d try it myself, but I don’t drink coffee.